Fate
by inquisitivelife
Summary: Severus never believed he would live beyond the second wizarding war. He had been so sure that he was going to die in a pool of his blood in the shrieking shack. But lo and behold he had survived the hellish war and to roam this world in self-loathing. A one shot short.


**I do not own any of these lovely characters.**

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Severus never believed he would live beyond the second wizarding war. He had been so sure that he was going to die in a pool of his blood in the shrieking shack. But lo and behold he had survived the hellish war and to roam this world in self-loathing.

The wizarding world had been crueler to him, something that he did not mind one bit, nor did he doubt would have happened. Regardless what he had done for their world he was still hated by most. And as the years moved on, so did he. He had stayed out of the public's eye…well sort of. He had stayed out of Britain's wizarding world.

He spent most of his time living in the muggle world. Here no one knew him, knew of his past and for once she could live his life the way he wanted to live it. There was no crazed, or senile master he had to obey. He was his own master now.

And even so he never really changed from the dour potions master he once had been. He was still bitter, still severe, but lived his life a little bit more carefree. He was no longer a professor, he did not have to deal with children anymore or have to go to Death Eater meetings to spy for Dumbledore. Now he owned his own apothecary shop, in Paris, France, under the pseudo name of Simon Seymour.

With a false name, he was able to live his life in peace. No one from his past could find him, nor would he run into them, or so he thought.

Never in his wildest dreams did he expect one third of the golden trio to walk through the door of his establishment. Severus had cursed under his breath when his eyes locked with the owner to the mass of brown curls. He had paused in his tracks as he stared at the equally shocked witch.

"This is a surprise, professor. I never thought I would see you here." Hermione said, smiling warmly at the dour man as she crossed the shop to the counter.

"Indeed, Miss Granger." He replied, crossing his arms at his chest. "How can I help you?"

"I'm only browsing, sir."

"I see, well if there's any questions, please ask." He paused, watching her fidget just some, as her eyes wander around the room, taking in the names on the potion bottles, and ingredient jars on the shelves. Narrowing his eyes at her, he added. "If you looking for ingredients or potions that are illegal, I suggest you look somewhere else."

She looked at him with a shocked expression. "What? No, I'm not looking for such a thing. I was just realizing that you're actually Simon Seymour."

"Still sharp as ever." He huffed. "And how did you come to that conclusion, from the mere minutes you've been in here?" He asked, testing her for reasons he knew not.

"Well, the writing on every label is in your handwriting."

"And that gave you the reason I am him? How are you sure that I am not just an employee that works for Mister Seymour?"

"Well, sir, you also have the same initials, but that is irrelevant though. What made me realize is that my roommate described you the way you look, right now. I would never had thought it was you, since she didn't say billowing black robe, and of course you're not wearing your frock." She told him, with a smirk.

Severus sneered at her, and turned on his heel. "If you need something, just ring the bell."

Disappearing into the back, his ears tuned in to the sounds of the room he had just left. He had waited and waited for the bell ring, but it never came, instead the chimes on the front door jingled, notifying that the witch had left his shop without saying another word.

It had been several days when he next seen the witch. She had appeared behind him, as he was locking up the shop for the night. He tried ignoring the woman as she chattered to him, followed him all the way to the apparition point. One would have thought that if one was not speaking the other would leave them be, and unfortunately no one had told that to Miss Granger.

Huffing out an agitated breath of air, he swirled around quickly. His arms crossed at his chest as he peered down his nose at the woman. He gave her his signature sneer, hoping that she would back away and leave him be, but she was not affected by it, as she looked back at him with a bright smile.

Grumbling, he ran his hand through his hair. "It seems you are determined to follow me home, Miss Granger."

She shook her head at him, and continued to smile that damn infernal smile that he was coming to enjoy immensely. "That's not what I'm doing."

"Then what, are you doing?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to annoy you, sir. It's been such a long time since I last seen you, I thought that we could catch up with one another. I really am sorry, if I knew I was bothering you I would have left you." She whispered, her head lowered. Turning around, she added, "I'll leave you be, sir. It was nice talking to you."

A strange feeling churned inside of him, he felt guilty seeing that sad look on her face. It wasn't that she was annoying him…..well she was, but he knew if it had actually annoyed him beyond belief he would have sent her away not allow her to follow him to the apparition point. Running his hand once again through his hair. He then did something that surprised not only the witch but himself. He had asked her to join him for dinner. And that was how everything thing started between them.

{-}

Months had passed by since that day and he did not regret it one bit. He had found something in Hermione that he knew he was missing in his life that he did not want to admit to. Each day he spent with her, he had felt more at ease with himself. But when she tried to get to know him, he would clam up on her. Turned cold, snap and still she stayed by his side.

Hermione was patient, loving and everything to him, and Severus couldn't understand why she was still with him. He was a difficult man to get along with, a man with a dark past that he did not want her to know about, even though she knew some of it. Still he did not want her to know the full extent of his past.

Eventually though, he had told her about it. He could see that she truly and deeply cared for him. That she truly wanted to know the real him and what made him be the man he was today.

As he had told her about his childhood, he was not all to surprise to find that she knew what her best friend's dad had done to him. She had even voiced how cruel it was for them to have done such a thing to him. Not only did she make a comment about them, but she had also made a comment about Lily. It had stung him some, but he knew she was right. If she had been his friend, she would had forgiven him, but she didn't and that wasn't a friend.

It was hard to even think that Hermione was right about that, but he had seen her friendship with Potter and Weasley. He had seen the way they had treated her and then apologized later about it and how Hermione forgiven them for it. And he knew that was what true friendship was, not the one he had believed he had with Potter's mother.

Opening his heart, his soul to the brunette, he had started to wonder how this all had become. He wonders if he did not ask her out to dinner would she still be here. Or would they had gone their separate ways without a glance or thought of what if. Whatever the possible outcome could have been he would never know, nor did he care.

But still he wonders how all of this was possible.

{-}

As the months turned in to a year and then another. The dark wizard started to think about him and the witch that had come into his life. He had known her since she was a first year at Hogwarts to this amazing beautiful woman that laid beside him, in their bed.

Lost in his thoughts on how he got so lucky, he snapped out of it when he felt the cool hand of his lover cup his face.

"A knut for your thoughts?" She asked gently.

He grabbed her hand, and brought it to his mouth, kissing the palm of her hand before laying it down on his chest. "I'm having a hard time believing that all of this is real."

"And why is that, Severus?"

"Because people like me, don't deserve people like you. In fact I shouldn't have a life like this one. I shouldn't have lived during the war, Hermione. I was basically ripped to shreds by that damn snake, and still I somehow survived."

Hermione smiled up at him, then pushed herself up in a sitting position. "Well first off, you do deserve it, Severus. You deserve to be happy like so many. Never think that you don't. Second, your time on Earth was not over, that's why you didn't die. And if you did, we wouldn't be here together. I would have lived a life not knowing this blissful one."

"I know I deserve to be happy, I don't believe I don't. Well now at least I don't. And as for my time on Earth not being over then, I don't believe that."

"You should."

"Well, it's hard to believe." He mumbled. "Besides that, I still don't know how I ended up with a witch like you."

"Well that's a mystery isn't it? Perhaps it's in our stars?" She said with a light chuckle, leaning in and kissing his cheek.

Could it be in their stars? Could this all have been charted long before they were born? If so, he was truly blessed that whoever it was that set out their destined lives, he thanked.

Smirking, Severus grabbed her and rolling her under him, pinning her to the bed as she let out a squeak. Kissing her deeply, his tongue claiming her mouth, stroking her tongue and then sucking on it as she let out a moan. Breaking their kiss, he kissed along her jaw line to her ear. Slowly and tenderly, he nibbled on her earlobe. "No, it was fate, that brought us together." He purred, and then proceeded to make love with her throughout the night.

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 **Comments are always welcome :D**


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